The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to assemble a task force to identify and aid any children living in LA County who are among the estimated 545 youngsters still separated from their families following an immigration crackdown at the U.S.-Mexican border.
Supervisor Hilda Solis recommended the workgroup and sending a letter to the secretaries of U.S. Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, as well as House and Senate leaders, denouncing the administration’s policies with regard to immigrant families.
“As the largest county and a county made whole by its immigrant community, we are obligated to act,” Solis said. “Staying silent is not an option. With this motion, we demand that separated children be expeditiously reunited with their parents because families belong together.”
In a court filing last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigration advocates reported that lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy have not been able to locate the parents of 545 children.
